Manually-activated printers are widely used to record a variety of information on cards including, most commonly, time and date information. In a typical scenario, the user inserts and aligns a card, e.g., a time card, in the printer and then activates the printer by, for example, pushing a “start” button. Alternatively, the printer can be activated by the card contacting a trip switch or the like within the printer. In this latter case, the user will align the card with respect to the location where printing is expected to occur and then push the card into its final position so that it contacts the trip switch and activates the printer.
A long-standing problem with manually-activated printers has been ensuring that the printing occurs at the location desired by the user. This is especially so in the case of time cards where multiple entries are to be made on a single card, e.g., a series of time and date entries, as routinely occurs with time cards. In the past, a plastic strip with a slot to show the print head path has been used to address this problem. The plastic strip is mounted on the printer's platen and the user positions the card under the strip so that the slot in the plastic aligns with the desired printing location.
The plastic strip approach has suffered from a number of problems. For example, the strip can be damaged as a result of inserting a card from the side as opposed to the front, thus snagging the plastic strip and tearing or deforming it. Also, because the strip is inside the unit, an auxiliary light is often required so that the user can see the slot when aligning the card.
The present disclosure overcomes these problems by eliminating the plastic strip and instead providing an optical printing guide which uses shaped-illumination to illuminate the portion of the card where the printing will take place. In this way, the user can easily and accurately align the card in the printer with full confidence that the printing will take place at the desired location.